THE EOS PARADE/ Biking through the dark drizzle at 5 AM in New Orleans to the parade. Mardi Gras. An Indian in flaming regalia standing on a park bench and calling out to an invisible crowd; crippled ghosts as numerous as the leaves on the trees all around us; the bleakness of their minds that I know is not true. My girlfriend costumed as a woodland creature antlered with cedar joyfully/fearlessly bringing the vanished magic back. Me a man with a red-starred face: "I'm the red star you find at the center of the Cottonwood tree." Twenty minutes in the increasing rain, seeing others walking toward the parade in the morning dark. Finely branched lightning opening up the grief-choked swampland's enormous sky. Locking our bikes up, hearing the wild music by the river in the distance, feeling the energies of the free-for-all celebration that we are all sure will save us. A cluster of sparkling cloaked figures appear when the lightning cracks open the sky again and grinning hopefully, we follow them. #neworleans#eos#ndn#ponca#poncatribe#poncapoet#nativepoet#girlfriend#mardigras#mardigrasindians#lovepoems#cottonwoods#redstar